


Our lives are a story told, coming to an ending

by Meruryan



Category: Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Genre: And now the world goes on, F/M, Future Fic, Gen, POV Outsider, Past Character Death, They had their time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 08:49:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12527532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meruryan/pseuds/Meruryan
Summary: A reprimanding lecture from Commander Holly Short turns into a discussion on the origins of her mismatching eyes. A young captain learns about history, love, and loss.





	Our lives are a story told, coming to an ending

Captain Dia Glade was standing at attention in the office of Commander Holly Short, nervous but determined. She had made a risky call in a situation that turned dangerous, but she stood by her actions. Lives had been spared. Maybe it had been a close shave, but what's done is done. The commander was currently chewing her out for "irresponsibility", but the reprimand wasn't coming from the heart. Dia wouldn't say she was friends with Commander Short, but she was aware she had been taken under the officer's wing. On most days this showed in sharper discipline than was common, but there was an understanding between them. Dia was pretty sure. Almost certain...

Commander Short's glare was sharp, but the lashing was winding down. "While this kind of action cannot be commended, I suppose you handled this well enough."

"Thank you, commander."

"And you will not be so reckless in the future, will you?"

"No, commander."

Short's expression softened as she went on. "I trust your judgement, but you _need_ to trust your backup. You're not alone in the field, even if it might sometimes seem so."

Captain Glade swallowed down the warmth those words brought her. Elves were known as the fairies most prone to wearing their hearts on their sleeves, but sprites weren't far behind. They, too, were often ruled by their emotions. _Be professional now, Dia._

"I understand, commander. I'll be sure to keep it in mind."

"Good. Now, I cannot officially approve of your actions, but I'll admit things got hairy in there. You did well, and the town has sent in their thanks. Those two human families owe you their lives."

Pride shone in Short's eyes, and it made relief flow all the way to the tips of Dia's wings. She felt like the adrenaline was finally fading, and smiling brightly she sat down. She was a bit giddy still, but the crash would no doubt come as soon as her magic settled.

Relaxing in her own seat, Short continued with a small smile: "I'm sure you'll want to wind down right about now, so if there's nothing else, I won't keep you from your downtime. Remember to fly over to perform the ritual when the full moon rolls around-"

"Actually, if you could spare me a few moments, there's something I've been wondering about."

The words came out on their own accord, the adrenaline still making her reckless. Dia almost hoped she could take the words back, but she was hardly going to find a better moment than this one. The commander was relaxed and Dia was feeling brave thanks to the close call she had. What's the worst that could happen? Just spit it out…

"Why is your left eye blue, commander?"

The question was one that came up around the water coolers from time to time. It had floated up from the depths of office gossip again recently when someone had stumbled upon an old file on the commander. It stated that both her eyes were hazel in colour. For weeks, now, the rumour mill had thrown around theories about special iris-cams and other, stranger reasons. Dia hadn't taken part in the gossip, but her relatively close relationship with Commander Short had made her more and more curious. Maybe she was out of line, but the possibility of getting an answer was irresistible.

Commander Short's normally expressive face went blank. She looked at Captain Glade with unnerving intensity for an uncomfortably long moment. Finally, she blinked and sat up straighter, folding her fingers together on top of her desk.

"Please stand up, captain. Now, look me in the eye." Dia stood up, swallowed, and tried not to sweat noticeably. Had she made a big mistake? Was it a mech-eye that would blast her with a burst of laser, or mind-wipe her? Had she presumed too much?

Nothing to it now. Doing as told, Dia looked into the blue eye. It looked the same as always.  A rather dark shade of blue, but warm, in the way Commander Short was warm, despite her temper and the air of command that came with her rank. At her base, Holly Short was kind, and her eyes were made to smile.

Then it changed. The commander's expression hardened, and a small spark of magic flared for a moment in the blue eye. Dia felt her blood freeze in her veins. She had never seen Commander Short look so cold, and the coldness seemed to flow from the blue eye. The colour was suddenly the blue of glacial water, of freezing northern sky and merciless, unfeeling arctic ice.

Dia shivered, but couldn't avert her eyes. The gaze pierced her, looked straight through her and pinned her will in place. The moment felt like it stretched on forever, but in truth the gaze held only for a few moments.

Then Short blinked, let out a breath, and both her eyes were warm again. She relaxed against her chairback slowly and studied her subordinate.

Dia felt like she was in shock, like a great predator had stared her down before simply letting her go. Her hands shook, and her legs made her sit down again without asking for her permission first.

There was silence, shocked and waiting.

Finally, Dia wheezed, then tried again. "What... happened?"

"You were just stared down by Artemis Fowl."

She gaped. "The...?"

"Yes, The Artemis Fowl. Or, his eye, at least."

"How is... I don't... How do you have Artemis Fowl's eye in your head, and what... What was that, I mean, how..."

Dia trailed off. She rested her forehead on her palm for a moment. Complete sentences deserted her. Wasn't she a LEP officer? How had a single stare shaken her so badly?

It almost looked like Commander Short was laughing behind her hand, but Dia assumed she was mistaken. Surely, she was too professional to do something like that.

"It happened when we retrieved the demons from limbo. We had to use a rather unstable time tunnel. These things can happen when you travel through time and space as only particles held together by willpower and magic, but it's not like we minded. We were friends by then.”

“As for the look I gave you, we started wondering one day. Things like these can create connections, and we wanted to find out if anything had been passed beyond the obvious. We started experimenting with all sorts of things, and replicating his famous icy look was the one that worked the best. The expression took some work, but when I got it down, we found that a bit of magic turned it into something else altogether."

Short was now blatantly lost in nostalgia, her gaze fixed on the centuries long past. Dia was hanging on to every word.  Usually listening to old fairies go on about the distant days of their youth made her feel like she would rather be sniffing stinkworms, but this was _Holly Short_ talking about her time working with _Artemis Fowl!_

"It's like I can bring out a small piece of him that I gained with the eye and bolster it with magic. The memory of him staring me down fills my mind and I can almost feel... well. In any case, the result is, as you no doubt agree, chillingly potent."

"So that was really him? He could do that?" Imagining a genius human staring down at her like _that..._ Dia suddenly had new respect for Holly Short, and every other fairy involved in the historical events.

"Oh yes. The stories don't give credit to how ruthless and cold Artemis could be. He wasn't always, only when necessary, but it was a frightening thing to see."

It was hard to imagine that glacial disdain ever being necessary, but what did she know. It was probably best not to dwell on it.

"But... he died hundreds of years ago, didn't he? He was a human, with a human lifespan." While much of Artemis Fowl's life was shrouded in mystery to the general population and Dia had never been the best at remembering history, this was a fact she was almost certain of.

"Not quite," the commander corrected with a crooked smile. "His almost constant contact with us fairies and our magic lengthened his lifespan far past the human norm. But indeed, he no longer lives. He awaits in the afterlife."

Talking about Fowl brought to Dia's mind a part of the stories, rarely brought up, that none could agree on. She was curious, for many reasons, and it struck her that there would never be a better time to ask about it. Dia was still riding high on her success, and the commander seemed to be in an amiable mood.

She steeled herself. The eye was one thing, but this could backfire horribly. It would be smarter to just let it go, but you know what they say about sprites and curiosity.

"Commander, may I ask a personal question?" Dia fixed her gaze into the wall past the commander's left ear, barely breathing. What am I doing...

Short seemed a bit amused, and responded with, "If I’m not mistaken, you already did. But we've come this far, so why stop now? Go ahead, I can see you still have something on your mind."

Sweat beaded on Dia's forehead. "I've just heard that... You maybe had a relationship with him?"

Holly laughs. "I should've guessed. But I can't blame you for being curious about this. Yes, it's true enough. At the time it was a well-known fact, and we even used our status to ease some tensions between the humans and the People. Setting an example, and all that. All carefully crafted and planned to the public eye, of course, but we were lovers outside the spotlight as well. Why all of it is almost a myth these days, I can’t tell for certain. Maybe we were simply too controversial? Maybe there’s been some covering up? Who knows.”

Dia let out a breath, almost not believing her good luck. If Short was willing to talk about this, she wasn't about to let the opportunity pass. Living on the surface again had slowly changed the way fairies saw humans, but this was an old taboo, slow to disappear. "Was it a difficult decision? To start a relationship with a human?"

Short’s eyes were cloudy as she focused on past. "Yes. How could it not be? I was torn for a long time. Not because of the scorn I would inevitably get - well, mostly not because of that. I always forged my own path, and difficulties only made me fight harder. But I thought I would destroy myself by letting myself get close to him. He might not wish to, but eventually he would have to leave me. Where would that leave me?”

“He never outright said so, but I know that was the reason he never approached me. I had... more to lose, and he wasn't that selfish. Sometimes it felt like he still harboured guilt for the things he had done to me, though I had forgiven him long ago at that point. If he did, he never told me.”

“But... eventually I realized I was far too late to guard my heart. Without trying, we had become parts of each other. I loved him, and losing him was going to wound me deeply no matter what, so I thought... Might as well have the benefits, too." Holly smiled. She looked wistful, and sad, but most of all tired.

Unbidden, Dia's mind filled with questions about humans and elves and benefits that she would never, ever, ever ask the commander. Why her brain thought it was fine to even imagine voicing questions like that to the commander, she might never know. It was a sweet, heart breaking story and she should be appreciating their courage and devotion. To distract herself, Dia quickly thought up something less dangerous to say.

 “I thought you were together with someone a couple years ago. Not that it necessary means, I mean, that since, um…” Dia trailed off, blushing intensely. Maybe she shouldn’t have rushed into the first sentence that pushed to the forefront. Luckily, the commander still seemed mostly amused by all of this. She tried to look disapproving, but a smile broke out. “I was. And I enjoyed the time I spent with Vars, thank you very much. It has been a long time since Artemis, after all.”

“I get it, of course,” Dia assured, “but the way you talk about Fowl, it sounds like… like it was something special.” Dia felt very small, watched by the mismatched eyes, weighed down by time. “How can you go on after it? What did you do?” Dia hated feeling like this, like her words were clunky bricks that she just couldn’t get to stack like she wanted to. She wanted to understand, and then show that she did, but words had always been ill-fitting tools for her. Why was the commander still indulging her?

“I did whatever I could. It’s a situation people encounter too often in this world, and everyone has to find their own way through it.” Short paused, looking at a painting on her office wall thoughtfully. After a few moments of silence, she went on. “I grieved, and let go. I have memories and relics, my work, and of course my dear friends. I've had several good, loving relationships since then. He insisted, told me I shouldn't dwell forever. That I had plenty of love to give. He wasn't wrong, though I haven't been able to settle. I can't... There is no competing with him. He never let himself be the second best, the arrogant fool." Her smile was fond. "He always won, when he gave his all. Unbearable, he was. We never got married, but those are just words. Neither of us ever really cared much for social norms, or the expectations of others in general. Oh, what trouble that used to land us in…”

Commander Short seemed lost in happy memories, and Dia decided she had bothered her enough for one day. She stood, gave a quiet thank you, and took the absent nod as dismissal. As she closed the door after herself, she saw those eyes following her, proud and bittersweet. The blue one was bright and sharp, and the hazel one more tired and soft.

Dia finally felt the crash from her mission coming on. She wandered through a wash and a change of clothes to her apartment and bed, all the while thinking about Holly Short and her strange, complicated and incredible past with a human genius. What it would feel like, to look into a mirror every day and see blue looking back.

There were stories about Holly Short from her days as a captain, telling of an adventurous, skilled officer who was always quick to act and constantly in trouble with her superiors. There were even some old videos of her they used as warnings on what not to do, showcasing her reckless, dangerous stunts. At some point, she had changed. She didn't hide behind her desk, exactly, but she didn't seem to have the thirst for action that used to fill her when she was still a captain. Commander Short went to the field when necessary, but there was rarely need for that. She was known to take long flights on her own time, but taking a pair of wings on a spin to see some nature once in a while wasn't really the height of adventure.

Holly Short had seen Dia through the difficulties this job offered with both harsh lessons and soft advice. She had taken an interest, perhaps seeing something of herself in the young sprite. Dia was thankful, and had a lot of respect for her mentor. She had been taken under Holly’s wing, and had gained much and more from it. Perhaps even a friendship. Dia was starting to understand, however, that there was a part of the commander she could never learn to know. Not in this life. It had died many years ago.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from First Aid Kit - The Bell


End file.
